[2] G. A. Reid was born on his family's farm in Wingham, Canada West.

After briefly apprenticing with an architect, he was trained at the Ontario School of Art, Toronto in 1879, where he studied with Robert Harris.

Afterwards, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1882 to 1885 where he was a protégé of Thomas Eakins who appointed him a demonstrator in anatomy classes.

He and his wife also made a number of study trips to Europe later, during which they visited France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

[8] He was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts[9] in 1889, was President of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1897, President of the Royal Canadian Academy from 1906 to 1909, one of the founders of the Associated Watercolour Painters in 1912, and having taught at the Central Ontario School of Art since 1890,[1] became the first principal of its successor, the Ontario College of Art from 1912 to 1929.

[16] At the Cowley Abbott Auction of An Important Private Collection of Canadian Art – Part III, December 6, 2023, Lot #153, Reid's Toronto Waterfront, 1886, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 ins ( 61 x 91.4 cms ), Auction Estimate: $70,000.00 - $90,000.00, realized a price of $216,000.00.